3rd mental health evaluation ordered for Nesconset teen charged with killing ex-girlfriend Emily Finn

A Suffolk County judge ordered the Nesconset teen accused of fatally shooting his former girlfriend in November to undergo a third mental health evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial — over objections by the defendant’s attorney — during a hearing in Riverhead on Tuesday.

The New York State Office of Mental Health found Austin Lynch, 18, was not competent to stand trial after he was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Emily Finn, who had visited Lynch at his home to return his belongings following a breakup.

Lynch was later charged in March with conspiracy after he allegedly plotted a burglary at Finn’s West Sayville home, drawing a map of the house for a fellow inmate at the Suffolk County jail and telling him where to find valuable items like jewelry. Mental health experts determined that Lynch was competent to stand trial on the conspiracy charge.

Those contradictory determinations painted the judge into a corner, Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony S. Senft Jr. acknowledged during Tuesday’s hearing. In January, he ordered Lynch to be transported to an Office of Mental Health hospital until he was able to understand the charges against him, but a second evaluation conducted this spring found him fit for trial on the conspiracy charge.

Suffolk prosecutor Dena Rizopoulos, who called Lynch a “danger to the community,” told the judge that Lynch could receive mental health services while incarcerated in the Suffolk County jail.

“He is competent to stand trial,” she told Senft.

But Lynch’s attorney, William Wexler, of North Babylon, argued that conflicting rulings resembled the world described in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” where logic and reason have been discarded.

Wexler acknowledged that sometimes defendants who struggle with mental health can have moments when they are lucid, but that doesn’t make it any easier to mount a defense.

“How do you have a trial where today is a good day, the next week is a bad day?” Wexler asked. “If somebody’s incapacitated, somebody’s crazy. They’re crazy, even if sometimes they are lucid.”

Senft ordered Lynch to undergo a third mental health evaluation over Wexler’s objection and ordered the defendant to return to court Sept. 17.

Finn, a dancer and aspiring teacher, was 18 years old when she died. Several friends and relatives attended Tuesday’s hearing, many wearing pink in support of Finn, but declined to talk to reporters.

Lynch pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the Nov. 26 shooting death. Prosecutors have said Lynch fired a single shot from close range into the back of Finn's head as she was looking to leave his home before turning the gun on himself, surviving a shot to his face.

Friends told investigators the young couple's relationship had broken down after Finn left to attend college in the fall and Lynch, who had enlisted in the Marines and was set to report to boot camp in February, became "possessive, accusatory and overbearing," Rizopoulos said at his Dec. 5 arraignment.

Lynch is facing the possibility of 25 years to life in prison if restored to competency and convicted on the murder charge and an additional 1¼ to 4 years for conspiracy.

Senft entered a plea of not guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy in March on Lynch’s behalf after his defense declined to participate in the proceeding due to the prior order declaring Lynch not fit for trial.